Secrets to a Good Photograph

Exposure:

My room does not have much daylight and my photographs are coming out really dark. There are a lot of little dots on my photos.

This subject is really about exposure. Exposure is all about light.

Exposure and Light: Secrets to a good photo

Light is the most important thing to understand about photography. I will discuss a very simple way to address this. If you want to learn more about light and photography you will need to take a class or and do more experimentation. Including buying strobes.

Answers to Your Baby Photo Questions

So: Lets say you have your home photo studio in this dark area:

Buy lights. If you are just beginning photography and are photographing a subject that does not move much (newborn baby) you can use what we call continuous lights. This is basically a light that stays on the whole time, unlike a flash or strobe that goes on and off quickly.

The good things about these lights: They will allow you to start working quickly without having to know too much about lights.

You will need several or you will need to work with intense lights. Get photo lights at a photo store. I have told many people that you can start off with the inexpensive construction lights. The truth is that it’s best to start off with the photo lights and when you are ready: Add a strobe.

So back to the simple way: But at least 2 intense photo lights. Chat with a sales person to get the correct light and all its accessories.

Tip: Point the lights up to the ceiling so that it bounces back down to the baby. You need the light to be nice and soft. If you point directly at the baby you may have unwanted highlights on the skin. You can also add a white umbrella and the light will go through it to the subject. Light must be placed at an angle so that the center of the light will not create hot spots.

Large dots on the photos:

These are called noise. Noise will distort the photo, make colors muddy and it’s basically pretty ugly.

Noise becomes apparent when you are photographing under low light.

Noise becomes apparent when you use a high ISO.

Solution: Work under bright conditions.

ISO: If you are working with an iphone or the camera in AUTO, the cameras will make the ISO higher to get more light.

You need to add more light.

Have you noticed how many times I have said to add more light?

The secrets to a good photograph? Create a good exposure with proper light.

I said I would keep this simple so I need to stop here.

The next step would be to discuss using strobes and the camera on manual mode…. This will be for another day!